L-Soft announced on November 20 the release of LISTSERV 15.0. A milestone version of the company's pioneering email list manager, LISTSERV 15.0 offers a completely redesigned Web interface, RSS support and new deliverability and performance features, such as rate limiting and background DomainKeys processing.

Recent increases in the amount of spam on the Internet have resulted in a tightening of anti-spam countermeasures at most email service providers. Unfortunately, the collateral damage is that a greater volume of legitimate email is being caught in those filters. This is particularly true for senders who haven't taken full advantage of the simple deliverability-protection methods already available to them.

Q: How can I associate extra data fields with an existing LISTSERV list?

Answer by Robert Graf-WaczenskiSenior Applications Programmer, L-Soft

Converting the LISTSERV list into a Maestro-hosted LISTSERV list will let you define extra data fields. This is a multi-step process that a data administrator can perform without difficulty. This example demonstrates how an existing LISTSERV list with 37 subscribers can be converted into a Maestro-hosted LISTSERV list while retaining its options and subscription history.

When Eric Thomas invented LISTSERV in 1986, the software was a utilitarian email-controlled program. Ten years later, in 1996, LISTSERV added its first Web interface. As LISTSERV has grown in functionality and usage, it has also become better looking. With the release of LISTSERV 15.0 last month, L-Soft now considers its Web interface to be the best and most attractive on the market.

Many organizations want to publish their newsletters in HTML, not only because HTML newsletters look more professional and visually appealing than plain-text newsletters, but because they provide better opportunities to track open-up and click-through rates and measure subscriber interest in articles, special offers and the newsletter in general. HTML newsletters, however, come with their own unique set of challenges.

Eric Thomas, L-Soft founder and CEO, and the inventor of LISTSERV, gave a presentation on future approaches to stop spam and the need of certification services for everyone on October 24, 2006, at Internetdagarna (The Internet Days) in Stockholm, Sweden.

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